Mind how long you keep food refrigerator

Despite the irregular power supply that has become our lot as a country, the truth is that refrigeration is still one of the simple ways we preserve food, fruit and vegetables.


Whether as a working woman, stay-at-home mom or self-employed, it’s absolutely impossible to meet the family’s food needs without the balancing act that refrigeration provides. For very busy women who are always on the go, it may take the form of cooking assorted stews and other foods such as beans and jollof rice that will last a week, and refrigerating them. That way, whenever any member of the family arrives home, all that needs to be done is to take your portion and warm it up either in the microwave or on an open stove.
 Refrigeration allows us to have food in a jiffy without the usual hassles that go with the process of initial cooking. Again, it helps in slowing down microbial activities and chemical changes that would have resulted in foods getting spoilt. Any food can be refrigerated, as refrigeration keeps foods fresh and also preserves, keeping them away from air-bone food contaminants and insects such as cockroaches, fruit flies and houseflies. According to Consultant Nutritionist, Dr. Simeon Oladimeji, when you refrigerate foods, you are able to store them for a long time, and the process protects your food from microbes. “Refrigeration keeps foods, vegetables and fruits cool and thus protects them from heat and direct sunlight. “It prevents food from getting spoilt and also protects them from insects and rodents. In fact, freezing stops the multiplying of microorganisms,” Oladimeji notes.
 Again, the opportunity to freeze your foods makes you to buy items in bulk when they are on sale and thus enable you to save money. Despite all these great advantages of food refrigeration, though, there are many downsides to it, too, especially when you keep your foods, fruits and vegetables for too long in the freezer or refrigerator. For one, the nutritionist warns, foods that stay too long in the refrigerator or chest freezer hardly taste quite as good as when fresh. “This is because, in the case of certain foods such as beef, fish, vegetables or fruit, except you’re sure of their freshness at the time of purchase, you may not bank too much on their preservation through refrigeration,” Oladimeji says. He adds, “When freezing meat, ice crystals form and cause the cells of the meat to break down and result in loss of moisture.” He notes that more often than not, even when we buy foods freshly from the market, we make the mistake of driving around with them — sometimes from the market to the office where we allow the foods to sit in car booth for extended period of time. He says we should be mindful of the fact that once removed from their natural habitat, foods start degrading, whether cooked or not. So, even if you later refrigerate the foods, much damage has been done to them already and in a matter of a day or two, you will see the result. He says the same goes for foods bought in the supermarket where the temperature in the food aisle is usually cooler than it is in any other area of the supermarket. “Immediately you bring out the food from the supermarket fridge or freezer, it begins to thaw. And as you continue to shop around, the process continues at rapid stage. By the time you make the payment at the check-out counter and hit the road, the temperature in the car continues where the outside temperature stopped. “So, nutrition-wise, you may not get real value for the food by time you want to eat it,” the consultant counsels. Apart from the effects of warm temperature, he says even in the case of home-made foods such as beans and rice, for instance, they may become dehydrated, especially if they are not properly covered or sealed. To guard against this, Oladimeji advises that you use tight-lid containers or ziplock bags that prevent foods from getting too much freezer exposure. The nutritionist also notes that when foods stay too long in the refrigerator or freezer, the taste is likely to be affected; and, in the case of cooked foods, they may become soggy and unable to hold water. Worse still, Oladimeji says, sometimes you bring out an ice cream from the freezer and what you notice is that it has picked up the flavours of other things that were stacked with it in the freezer! To prevent this, store foods according to their groups. As we all know, vegetables are the worst hit when it comes to disadvantages associated with food refrigeration. If vegetable absorbs too much moisture from the refrigerator, for instance, it can become unattractive and limp. “Consequently, they can lose flavour, colour, vitamins and minerals; and they can become tough,” the nutritionist says. As for dairy products such as milk, cheese and yoghurt, careless handling may expose you to serious food-borne pathogens such as listeria, salmonella and E. coli, all of which are quite deadly and could kill. Oladimeji also says despite refrigeration, some microorganisms, such as psychrophiles, which make foods to spoil easily, may still thrive, especially where the fridge is opened too frequently, or where the electricity supply is not able to keep the freezer or fridge cool enough for what they are supposed to do He advises against freezing cooked foods for two long because, he says, the sodium (salt) concentration tends to concentrate after sometime; and that’s why you may be surprised that your food is suddenly saltier than it was when you first stored it. He also counsels against storing raw and cooked or ready-to-eat foods together, saying the raw foods can contaminate the ready-to-eat foods especially. He notes that fridges or freezers come with compartments for fruits, vegetables and other food items, saying using them as appropriate and under the right temperature will preserve food. The bottom line: Don’t shop for too much food. One week’s supply is okay at a time. Source:Punch News